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WELCOME TO LEARN ABOUT WOOD WIKI This wiki has been developed by a group of 1ºESO students from IES Ramiro de Maeztu in Madrid, Spain. Our aim is to show to reader how is wood and its characteristics. and let students learn about wood. WHAT WOOD IS AND WHICH TYPES EXIST Wood is a natural material. It has been used for hundreds years for building and as fuel, but it has also other uses, for example, to make music instruments like xylophones or violins, picture frames, etc. Wood is very useful for humans.Wood is a hard, fibrous structural tissue found in the trunk, from stems and roots of woody plants (like trees or bushes).There are many types of wood, because each type of wood come from a type of tree. Not all the types of wood can be use to make anything, for example a box. Normally for making a box, maple,birch and mahogany wood is used. Previously , when people were going to buy a piece of wood or something, they didn't know what type of wood was. In some cases even the seller didn't know it.You can combine some woods at the same time. Close to the appearence of life on Earth, vegetable life began to spread. And Mankind has always consider Wood as a resource. But Man took much time to realize that wood could be used for many more applications such as covers for rain, for making fire... It is an organic material, a natural composite of fibers. Some types of wood are: CASTANEA: Commonly called chesnut tree, normally they are in the northern hemisphere. The fruit of the chesnut tree is the nut. MAHOGANY: It can be the wood of trees called mahogany of tropical Indian and mahogany. Their principal characteristic is that their colour goes from dark red, red wine and to the lightest tones of pink. WHITE MAPLE: This tree can be about 30 metres high. Ebony, maple, walnut, elm, oak and yew are other types of wood. PROPERTIES OF WOOD *Density: Is the relation between the weight and the volume that wood has. Density depends on the pores which are in the wood. *Hardness: Wood is a hard material, that means that it can not be deformed easy.Hardness is the opposition that a piece of wood presents to be scratched. *Flexibility: Wood can be curved. Flexibility express how easy is to fold a piece of wood. *Duration: This material is resistant. This property express the time a wood piece can stand without spoiling. *Streaks: This are the shades and colors that wood has. *Weight: Timber is a very light material. TYPES OF WOOD AND TREES Trees can be classified into deciduous and evergreen trees. EVERGREEN TREES: They have their leaves during all the year, they don't loose them. They grow faster so they become a softwood. Some examples are pine trees and cypress. DECIDUOUS TREES: They loose their leaves in winter, so they don't have the leaves during all year like evergreen trees. You can find more away the equator because they noticemore when temperature changes. They grow very slowly so they become hardwood. Some examples are the apple trees and the oaks. PARTS OF THE TREE The parts of the tree are the roots, the trunk and the branches. ROOTS: They are below the ground, in the underground. It absorbs water and nutrients and it ensure the tree to the soil. They have a principal root a nd secondary roots. Some trees have special roots which can grow from a different finality, for example, the adventencial roots can grow from the trun k, leaves or dead branches. Other trees have branches which a type of buttresses to offer them more security. TRUNK: It is the main stem in all the tree. It has at he top the branches, the leaves and in some cases the fruits or the flowers. And at the bottom of the trunk there are the roots which are under the soil. The trunk is where wood is extracted. It separates the roots from the branches. The trunk transported the sap from the ground to the leaves, during the period of photosinthesis. BRANCHES: Are the tree long extentions. They are at the top of the tree, just above the trunk. In some cases the branches supported the fruits or the flowers. The leaves also grow in the branches. PARTS OF THE TRUNK The parts of the trunk are bark, cambium, sapwood, heartwood and the bone. BARK: It is the outer layer and is form of dead cells. It protects the tree from the weather. CAMBIUM: It is below the bark. It has two parts the XILEMA, which forms the wood and the FLOEMA, which forms part of the crust. In the cambium season, sprin g to autumn, a new layer appears. SAPWOOD: It is the most recent wood and it transport the sap. It has conducting vessel which carry sap. HEARTWOOD: It is the main part of the trunk. Is from which timber is obtained. It consists of dead cells. It is resistant, so it is hardwood. It is the centre of the tree and it not has sap. BONE: Is the centre of the trunk. It is not very resistance. It is the oldest part of all the trunk. PROCESS TO OBTAIN TIMBER 1- Cut the tree: The tree is cut, the trunk is separated from the roots. It has different stages: Felling-branches and bark supression-bark peeling-chopping 2- Transport it: The tree can be transformed in different ways (by road, by river transport, by sea transport, by rail, by animal traction, etc). 3- Chopping: The trunk is chopped. 4- Let it dry: After cutting the wood it has to be dryed to remove all the water and humidity that it has. NATURAL & PREFABRICATED WOOD There are two types of wood the natural wood and the prefabricated wood. *NATURAL WOOD: It is used directly, with no kind of transformation. It can be hardwood or softwood. *PREFABRICATED OR PLYWOOD WOOD: It is made with the chips and wastes of natural wood. These wastes are united with glue in order to make big boards. Prefabricated wood is less resistant and softer than natural wood. There are two types: marquetry and agglomerate. *MARQUETRY WOOD: It is formed by different boards of thin thickness which are sticked together. * *FIBREBOARD: Is obtained by the union of fibre particles bsinthetic resin which has being pressed. One of the most used is the DM. *LAMINATES: They are formed by an artificial board base which has been sticked with a very thin wood print with a very attractive marmle or end. WOOD DEFECTS Timber has different types of defects: *MECHANICAL PROBLEMS: Occurs when a big and important knot is in the beam, it not affect to the resistant capacity of the beam because it is in the compressed zone and the wood of the knot is more resistance than the rest. If this knot is in the lower half it can make an orifice in the beam. Another way is because of some failures of design or execution, or reforms of poor judgment. *NATURAL PROBLEMS: The wood can be affect of illness and of outer attaks. There are also knots, but they can't be notice outside, but in small, dry branches you can see it. They are formed by pruning important branches. WOOD COLOURS Wood is normally brown, and it has shades. But we can change colors of wood. For example: the ebony. The ebony is a dense black wood. This type of wood has this color naturaly, with any kind of process. But wood can't have colors like blue or purple. In order to change wood's color we have to tint it. A type of tint is the anilines. This is a type of brushwork which you mix with water, and once it is dry you put varnish on it to avoid the color to get off. HOW TO LOOK AFTER WOOD VIDEOS Here there are some videos. This videos show different forms to cut wood. Photos and videos are a great way to add visuals to your wiki. Find videos about your topic by exploring Wikia's Video Library.